Blood of the Angel
by lekhak
Summary: Alongside the events of TMI, this story follows a mundane girl, Amelie, who finds that she and her brother can carry runes. While her younger brother looks like any other shadowhunter she has been cursed with silver ones. Shows glimpses into the childhoods of the chracters from TMI without disrupting the original storyline.
1. Preface

**I'm just messing around writing this piece, I hope y'all enjoy it.**

A dark figure glided through the dark mist that covered the large meadow. It moved slowly, a short scythe seemed to protrude from one of the folds in its cloak.

The figure reached its arm out of the cover and pulled back its hood. Thick black hair flowed out and the wind seemed to pick it up and blow it back.

"Magnus." The figure, clearly a woman, whispered. Her face was a smooth pale sheet under the moonlight with no blemish other than a thin black line that cut from the bottom of her right eye down to her neck.

The fog seemed to slowly part as she spoke the name again, revealing a small cottage with a dim yellow light on the porch.

"Magnus, I know you're in" The woman sighed and knocked lightly on the door which had just become visible.

The cottage door slowly opened, a dark creature looked out from it.

"He's in the room." The dark figure could now be seen under the porch light. He had navy blue skin, and short golden brown horns seemed to point out from him curly black hair.

"Max?" The woman asked tilting her head slightly.

"Yes, you must be Amelie." He opened the door wide and the woman stepped in, slowly pulling off her cloak to reveal a shimmery silver dress.

"Aren't you a little overdressed?" The blue horned man asked and the girl smiled.

"I was a little busy tonight before I got the message to come here." She replied softly walking through the house as if she had been there many times before.

"What message?" The blue boy asked trailing behind her but the woman didn't seem to hear him. The fireplace was on in the living room and the woman, Amelie, walked past it gazing with interest around the house as she walked.

"You haven't redecorated much have you?" She asked her hand grazing over the frame of one of the paintings as she walked on.

"Mags, is he here?" She asked walking into a room where two figures sat. One was turned away from her, his straight black hair went down to his shoulders and he had a blanket wrapped around him. He sat in front of a bed where an old man lay, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling gently.

"You can't do anything about it, he wouldn't want you to." The black haired figure, Magnus, growled glaring at the woman. His amber eyes seemed to be glazed in tears and deep sadness.

The girl ignored him as she walked forward to stand beside him.

"I can give you tonight" She said. "Just as I promised him."

Magnus turned around, his face was soft and tan. There wasn't a single wrinkle on him, nothing about him gave away his great age except for the expression in his eyes which seemed to hold depth that was disproportionate to his clear young face.

Magnus nodded and the girl held out her hands, clasping Magnus' hands in one and her other hand wrapped around the pale wrinkled hand of the old man that lay on the bed.

"I will collapse when I finish but don't panic." She warned as she closed her eyes and furrowed her brows. "I won't wake up until the sun rises tomorrow morning. And everything will go back to the way it was."

There didn't seem to be any disturbance in the air as she clenched her hands, instead it just seemed as if she was meditating. Maybe concentrating hard to remember something, but if you looked at the man who lay in the bed you could see the color come back to his face gradually. His wrinkles seemed to flatten away as if an iron was going over his skin and his silver hair seemed to darken gradually until it was raven black.

"Impossible." Amelie heard the navy blue boy breathe behind her and she couldn't help but grin as she saw the result. Her eyes opened and she gently let go of their hands.

"Hello Alec." She said as her eyes rolled back and she fell backwards, dark blue arms caught her before she could hit the ground.

"I got her papa." The blue boy said nodding at the one named Magnus who didn't seemed to be paying attention.

"What happened?" The old man turned boy asked getting up. "I don't…" Magnus reached for Alex, stroking his face softly a look of wonder in his eyes.

"She gave us tonight." He answered. "I-if you want to stay…you know she can do more."

Alec shook his head, "My answer is still the same my love, the same as it was seventy years ago. My time is over."


	2. Not a Shadowhunter

**This is where the story actually starts. You'll only see a couple of characters from Mortal Instruments in this one but it'll begin melding with the rest of the story soon!**

 **Please review :D**

"Amelie, Amelie wake up!" The dark haired girl just rolled over in her bed letting out a loud annoyed groan.

"Amelie, tata Monteclaire est ici!"

"Tais-toi, I'm sleeping Marion."

"AmeLIE!" Her door burst open and a small black haired boy rushed in, jumping onto the bed. "Its Idris day Ame!"

The girl who had been buried deeply under her blanket before got up suddenly. Her long black tangled her covering her face, she reached out and brushed it from her eyes which were now shining in excitement.

"Have you brushed your teeth?" She asked the little boy as she jumped out of bed in her silky pajamas and rushed out the door grabbing a pair of black leggings that hung on the door handle of her wardrobe.

"Oui, she's waiting en bas." The boy followed his sister out from the room to where she had now put on the leggings under her light pink pajamas which she had just tied in a knot to shorten on the side.

"You're going to wear your pajamas to Idris?" The boy asked furrowing his brows and the girl shrugged.

"Its not as if they're going to let us leave the house. We're mundanes remember?" The boy frowned at his sister's words.

"Nous ne sommes pas banal!" He defended.

"Non, Marion, mundanes not mundane. It just means we aren't Shadowhunters." She explained and the boy nodded.

"How do you become a shadowhunter?" He countered and the girl frowned.

"There's nothing they'll let us do about it. We can't even try, they're trying to figure out what we are." She answered as she walked back into her room, pulling out a large duffel bag from the floor of her closet and slinging it over her shoulders.

"M-mais you just said nouse sommes mundanes."

"Well, maman and papa are mundanes, they can't tell what we are." The girl couldn't have been too much older than the little boy that was now trailing behind her, but she answered his questions with patience.

"Is that why we live with tata Monteclaire?" He asked innocently and his sister just nodded.

"Amelie, Marion good morning children." A tall thin woman greeted the two children as they finally made it down the stairs. She was sitting on the sofa, her eyes immersed with the book she had in her hand. She didn't even bother looking up as she continued speaking to them.

"I've made zome poached eggs and toast. Vee sure to eat zem before zee varlock arrives." The woman had a thick French accent and the two children nodded heading into the kitchen.

"Why are we not like Maman and Papa?" He asked as his sister placed a plate with an omelet and a piece of toast in front of him.

"We've gone over this Marion. I told you last night before you went to bed." The girl sat down with an identical plate in front of herself.

"Will we get to see Maman and Papa again?" He asked and the girl didn't answer, instead she bit into her toast and chewed slowly. The boy didn't speak again and the two ate in silence.

"Give me your plate Marion, I'll wash it. Go wait in the living room with tata, you can ask her the questions." The boy sighed and pushed himself off the table as his sister piled the dishes on to the sink.

As she washed the plates she could hear the boy asking his aunt about Shadowhunters and what they were, and why he wasn't one. Amelie was stressed, it wasn't a new feeling either. Just a year ago her family had been perfectly normal, living in a small town in north-western France knowing absolutely nothing about the shadow world. Of course, her parents had known, her mother's sister was a shadowhunter. Tata Monteclaire had drank from the mortal cup and become a shadowhunter but she had been very close to her sister, Amelie's mother to whom she had told everything.

That was why they had moved permanently to a small remote French town, to keep themselves safe. It hadn't helped because according to her mother both Amelie and Marion had been born with the sight. She hadn't really thought anything much of being able to see things others couldn't, and when she was younger tata Monteclaire brought her shadowhunter relatives and their children over all the time. To her, the sight really hadn't meant anything, all she knew was that the strange markings the kids got on their arms wasn't something she was allowed to have but other then that they were the same.

She had been fine until she had turned nine the year before and they had invited all her auntie's shadowhunter friends to their cottage. One of the kids had left their steles on the table and Marion, who had only been seven at the time and not warned that he couldn't use the silver instruments had tried to copy one of the runes into his own arm. They had been about to cut the cake when he had come waddling in with a black rune on his left arm.

Of course everyone had just thought that Marion had found a black marker and drawn it and laughed at first before he told her that he had used the stele brandishing it in front of everyone.

The Silent Brothers had been called, and they had only thought that Marion was the anomaly before they examined her as well. They tried a rune on Amelie and she still remembered how it burned and left a large silver marking on her skin.

It had been some very simple rune that wouldn't have really affected her if she turned out to simply be a mundane but they realized that there was something incredibly wrong with both of them. When they checked her parents they found no shadowhunter genes, and both Marion and Amelie were biologically their children. The fact that they could somehow carry markings was unheard of and everyone who had witnessed them was sworn to secrecy.

Letting them stay in Dinan, the French town, was out of the question so they were sent to stay with their tata Monteclaire. It had been a year, almost to the day. Her tenth birthday would be in four days and she missed her parents incredibly.

"So why do we have to go to Idris?" Amelie heard the boy ask his aunt. "Are Maman and Papa going to be there?"

She could hear the woman sigh, and Amelie finished drying the last plate and walked back into the living room.

"You have to go to Idris because you two are going to be trained as Shadowhunters." The woman answered. One thing Amelie had been grateful for was the fact that her aunt didn't feel the need to hide the truth from them, she had never in Amelie's knowledge lied to them just because they were children. From the beginning the woman had been frank with what she knew and tended to answer all of their questions to her fullest ability.

"So Maman and Papa aren't going to be there?" The woman didn't look up from her book.

"Mundanes can't vee in Idris."

"Ame and I are mundanes."

"No Marion, you're not." The woman didn't look up from her book but put one hand on the boy's hair and patted it comfortingly. "Vee don't know vat you two are but you are not mundanes. Zere is definitely angel vlood in you."

"Marion, stop bothering Tata she's trying to read." Amelie sat down on the couch playing with a loose piece of thread on her shirt.

The woman finally looked up from her book. "Vere is zat infernal varlock, he must ve thirty minutes late!" The woman got up from her place in the sofa, her height was even more prominent now that she was standing up.

"Is it Ragnor Fell again?" Amelie asked, remembering the strange green man that had portaled her to the Silent City a year ago.

Her aunt shook her head. "Ee iz on vacation at zee moment. I vould have preferred him. 'Ee is a good vamily vriend of ours."

Amelie wondered what this new warlock would look like. She had only ever seen one, but ever since she had found out that there was something different about her she had begun reading every book she could get her hands on about the Shadow World.

Warlocks could come in any shape, color or size and she had been astonished to learn that they were immortal. Of course, most died early anyways being unwanted forced offsprings of demons and humans. If they did survive that, they would many times die in the hands of their own magic which they weren't able to control.

"Zome American varlock by zee name of Magnus Vane. Ee came highly recommended vy Ragnor." Her aunt strutted to the large mahogany doors that stood on the other side of the enormous living room.

Shadowhunters seemed to be rich, that was something Amelie had observed from seeing her Aunt's home and the Paris institute which they had had to go through before going to the Silent City a year back. Then she remembered the Herondale mansion her aunt had shown her a portrait of. All their houses seemed uncomfortably large, she assumed killing demons for a living must pay very well. Just like working in the train lines, or in airplanes would. Risking your life meant you must get paid decently as an incentive.

"Vell, vat are you doing just standing outside zee door varlock?" The woman cried incredulously when she opened the door.

"Is it the wizard?" She heard Marion ask as he got up on the sofa to get a better look past their aunt. Amelie strained her neck as well, trying to see if there was any green or blue on him.

The man that followed her aunt into the room however was surprisingly ordinary and Amelie found herself to be slightly disappointed. Aside from his glittery spiked hair and his brightly coloured tight fitting shirt there was nothing out of the ordinary about him. No horns, no funny coloured skin she wondered if all of the glitter was his way of compensating for a lack of demonic traits. Or maybe his demon parent was glittery and the colours were actually a permanent part of him.

"Are you Magnus Vain?" Her little brother asked.

The man looked surprised when he heard his name and Amelie watched him with careful eyes as a grin came over the man's face.

He kind of looked like a cat she thought, maybe his demon parent had been some kind of cat demon, a glittery cat demon didn't seem to be something very vicious.

"Magnus Bane, with a 'B'" The man said. "Remember that little shadowhunter."

"I'm not a shadowhunter!" Her brother piped up folding his arms.

"Oh really?" The man asked disbelievingly, looking at the black rune on the back of her brother's right hand. "What are you then?"

"I don't know." The boy said with complete confidence. "That's why Ame and I can't live with our parents anymore, because nobody knows what we are."

The warlocks face seemed to soften as he heard what her brother was saying and his eyes moved back to Amelie. He seemed to rest at the silver rune that lay across the base of her neck and she swallowed nervously.

"I'm here to make a portal yes?" He quickly looked away from her but not before Amelie saw a strange look cross his face.

"Yes, to Idris please." The warlock nodded and Amelie watched in fascination as he twisted and turned his arms and a portal appeared.

Her aunt held out her hands for the kids to take, "Zank you varlock." The woman nodded as she stepped into the portal both Amelie and Marion holding either of her hands, and Amelie holding her large duffel bag on the other arm.

She noticed the warlock staring right at her silver rune before he vanished from her sight.


	3. Idris

Upon their arrival to Idris, her aunt had handed her a stele. "You'll need it for your training." Was all she had told her and then handed her over to the Silent Brother for the next few hours.

The Silent Brother went by the name of Brother Zachariah and she found herself wondering what all the runes on him meant. At least the visible ones, she had memorized a good amount of runes from the grey book that her aunt had showed her and she was surprised to see so many that she didn't know the meaning of.

 _You have certainly learned a lot of things about the shadow world in the past year little one._ Brother Zachariah commented and she wrinkled her nose at the strangeness of his voice in her head.

"There was nothing else to do." She replied. They hadn't let her go to school, so most days she would have to spend in the library. Even Marion had gotten bored enough to start reading the books, he had gotten used to drawing runes all over his walls and their aunt didn't really seem to mind so nobody had controlled his doodling.

 _I'm sorry for having you uproot your life because of this, but the world isn't safe for you unless we can find out what you are._ He had told her and had asked her permission before diving into her mind. It had felt like hours before her aunt came up to get her, a look of concern on the woman's face as the Silent Brother informed her that nothing new had been gleaned from her mind.

"There's a surprise waiting for you downstairs." Her aunt said, flashing her a rare comforting smile.

Amelia walked down, wondering what her aunt meant. "Is Marion down there?" She asked and the woman nodded.

"He's already seen the surprise." Her aunt sounded almost giddy and Amelia wondered what it could be.

She walked down to the living room, Monteclaire estate in Idris wasn't as extravagant as the one in Nice. There were two floors, and only eight bedrooms, and it was not close to any other houses. The garden was large, and it melded into the forest, however there was a small cottage in the back which her aunt had told her was the library. Amelie had noticed that they were surrounded by tall trees and the only thing that seemed to be visible past them was the tall snow capped mountains all around them.

"Ame!" She heard her name being called out as she felt herself being crushed by warm arms, and she smelled the familiar scent of her mother.

"Maman!" She yelled surprised to see her mother, when her mother let her go she could see Marion perched on her father's shoulder. "Papa!" She rushed past her mom and crushed her dad, euphoria filling her heart and tears welling up in her eyes. "H-how? I-I thought you weren't allowed in Idris!"

Her parents just smiled at her, "We're ascending Ame, we'll be shadowhunters and we will be able to live with you."

The euphoria that had filled her slowly dissipated as she registered what her parents were willing to do. She had read all about the risks of ascending, for mundanes it was a fifty-fifty chance between life and death.

"N-no." She shook her head. "You c-can't stay with us like this?" She asked.

Her mother shook her head, "There are strict rules, we'll be fine sweetie we've been training all year." Her mother stroked her hair comfortingly and Amelie felt her dread turning into anger.

"Then go back to France, I can take care of Marion myself we don't need you." She left her father's grip and glared at her parents.

"Amelie!" She heard her aunt say with surprise in her voice.

"I'd rather have you safe loin de moi que vous etes mort." She was so angry she began to lose her hold on speaking one language.

"Ame, que tu dis? C'est fou!"

"Non, t'est fou Maman! I read about drinking from the mortal cup, I know what it does to you." While she was yelling Marion began to cry, she hadn't noticed at first since he had been on her father's shoulders but now she could hear quiet controlled sobs of the eight year old.

"M-maman, don't drink from the cup." The little boy said between tears as his father put him down. She watched as her father went down to his knees to explain to Marion that everything would be alright.

"Ame, this is the only choice we have. You know we wouldn't be risking our lives for no reason." Her father said to her and Ame sighed dejected, knowing there was nothing she could do that could change her parent's minds. She was still angry, angry at the stupid shadowhunters and their rules to separate her from her family.

"When is the cup ceremony?" She asked.

"Brother Zachariah has brought it with him." Her father explained and Amelie frowned.

"That's not possible, you can't just move the mortal cup like that. The clave has rules, I read about them." What her parents were telling her didn't add up to what she had read at her aunt's library. For any mundane to ascend there was a process, the clave would have to approve them for ascension and a shadowhunter family would have to vouch for them. Then they had to go through training and there was an entire ceremony where they would drink in front of the clave and get runes placed on them by the silent brothers.

 _The clave has not been informed about your situation. For both yours and your brother's safety it is important that everybody thinks that you are shadowhunters through your parents._ The eerie voice of Brother Zachariah rang through her mind and she saw her parents flinching slightly.

"Won't they ask questions? All the shadowhunter families know about each other." Amelie saw so many holes in the plan that she didn't understand how her parents could have agreed to all of this.

"You are to be zeescended from zee Starkweather line, zee silent brothers 'ave all made zee arrangements." Her aunt answered this time. "It makes sense my azension ees not zat vell known eezer vee can attribute it to my zide of zee family."

 _Are you ready?_ The Silent Brother asked, he was holding a gold cup covered in runes in his hand. Her parents nodded and she grabbed her mother's hand as she held out her hand for the cup. She held her breath as her mother put the cup to her lips and took a gulp from it.

The woman shuddered and she saw her mother's eyes open and a smile pass her face.

 _How do you feel?_ She felt Brother Zachariah's voice in her mind and she watched her mother hold her left hand out as the silent brother etched a black rune on her arm with his stele.

Amelie wondered if all runes were black, as far as she had seen everyone had black runes and in the books she read they never specified the colour of the runes. Maybe black was just a common colour for them to appear in because she couldn't find an explanation for her silver ones. She shook her head, telling herself to inquire about it later.

"See Ame? We'll be fine," she heard her father say with a smile as he held his arm out to take the cup. She felt herself hold her breath again, her heart pounding against her chest and she prayed to the Angel that he would survive it just as her mother had.

Prior to finding out about the Shadow World and her part in it she had never even been inside a church. She didn't believe in god, or the angels or anything like that. To her, the creatures in the shadow world were nothing extraordinary and to believe in things such as the angel had made no sense to her. But now, after the events of the past year she couldn't think of any way to help than to pray to the angel.

Her father brought the cup to his lips and she watched as he gulped it in handing the now empty cup back to Brother Zachariah. She watched with concentration as her father wiped his lips and she waited for the same smile that had come across her mother's face come across his.

It never came. Instead she watched as her father doubled over with pain coughing hard. She felt herself rushing to her father and she could feel her mother trying to hold her back but the anger filled with panic rushing through Amelie at that moment pushed her past her mother and the silent brother to her father.

She felt the silver rune on her right arm and the rune on her left hand heat up as she watched her father slowly stop coughing. His face seemed to relax and Amelie suddenly felt herself get dizzy. She backed up from her father who was getting up and she looked defiantly up at the silent brother.

"If you think you're letting my father drink from that cup again you can forget about it." She practically growled and she could hear her father chuckle beside her.

"There's no need for that Ame, I think the cup did its work." She felt her shoulders relax upon hearing those words and watched as the silent brother put a rune on her father's hand. She could see her father wince as the stele burned him and she quickly grabbed his hand feeling herself get even dizzier as if energy was being sucked out of her.

She saw a look of surprise cross the silent brother's face, she hadn't had the chance to see under his hood but she was surprised to see a young man with black runes across his face. He was surprisingly normal looking and she remembered reading that silent brothers were supposed to have sewn shut lips. So far everyone looked normal, the warlock that had portaled them to Idris didn't have so much as a horn to mark him as one (aside from possibly the excessive glitter) and now the silent brother working with them looked like a normal man with face tattoos. They looked like the normal people she saw when they went to San Francisco on their holidays to visit her father's family.

"Ame?" She heard her name being called. "It worked out, now you have nothing to worry about." She felt herself nodding at the voice which seemed to come from far away, although her mind told her that it was her father's and he was standing right next to her.

 _Amelie, are you alright?_ She felt the silent brother ask as her sight went black and suddenly she wasn't standing upright anymore.

Starkweather

When she woke up she could see the man with the runes tattooed all over his face. "B-brother Zachariah." She whispered as she leaned up on her pillow. "What happened?"

The silent brother looked at her as if he was trying to find something in her face.

 _You collapsed. Your father almost died during his ascension and somehow you were able to transfer your energy so that he survived it._

"That's not possible." She answered.

 _There are many things in the world that shouldn't be possible._ The man answered with no further explanation.

"How did I do it?"

 _There is something strange about you Amelie Starkweather._ The silent brother said and Amelie frowned.

"My name isn't Starkweather."

 _It has to be now. I'm sorry for all you have had to go through child, but you will have go by that name if you want to keep your family safe._

"Why can't I just live as a mundane? I was fine in Dinan." She answered defiantly.

 _Child, until you find out what you are and what you can do you can never be safe. There will always be demons coming to use you or destroy you. If the rest of the Shadowhunters find out about you and your brother they will never let you alone._

"How is this any different?"

 _The Silent Brothers will keep you safe while we find out what you are. You aren't the first anomaly in this world._

She didn't understand and she watched as the silent brother got up to leave the room.

 _Your training will begin tomorrow morning._ He said, _your aunt will train you and when you're ready she will send you to an institute so you can acquaint yourself with other shadowhunters._

Amelie glared at the hooded man as he walked to the door, her anger slowly seeping back into her mind. She didn't deserve this, her parents and her brother didn't deserve to be uprooted from their entire lives just because some hooded man with strange tattoos said it was safe.

She remembered her question about the runes and their colours before the silent brother had opened the door to leave her room and she suddenly blurted it out. "Wait!" The man turned tilting his head slightly with no emotion showing in his serene face.

"A-Are my runes supposed to be silver? I read all the books and they never say anything about the color of runes but mine are silver."

 _Runes are always black on flesh._ He replied and left the room. Amelie felt her stomach fill with dread as she realized that her peculiarity was plainly visible on her skin.

She went back to sleep once the silent brother had left and when she woke up again it was morning. Her mother and father were now sitting beside her on a chair and she smiled as she looked up at them.

"Hi maman, papa."

"Do you remember what happened Ame?" Her mother asked and she shook her head.

"Papa was coughing, and suddenly I passed out?" She asked.

"Your runes glowed. Your tata wants to have you study about runes from the silent brothers once a week so you can begin to understand your um… abilities more." Her mother softly stroked her hair with a worried look on her face. "Its okay if you don't want to. Nobody is going to force you to do something you don't want to." Her mother added and Amelie had to hold back a sarcastic laugh. So far, all they had done was force her to do things she didn't want to.

"It's fine Maman, I'll be fine." She gave her mom a smile. "Brother Zachariah said we'd be training starting today?" She asked.

"Yes, your tata Monteclaire will be training you. Your cousin Sonia is here she arrived last night from the Paris institute, she'll be training with you." Amelie nodded getting out of bed as her parents left her to get ready for the day.

The last time she had seen her cousin Sonia was when she was telling Amelie about taking some clave tests to be allowed to go on missions to get demons. Sonia was her age, their birthdays were only one month apart with Amelie being the older one and they had always been pretty close. Despite the fact that Sonia had been a shadowhunter and Amelie a mundane. They had been raised as sisters since their aunt spent so much time at their house. Sonia's father had been killed during the uprising and since then Sonia's mother spent very little amount of time with other shadowhunters. She had only ascended a month before the uprising and Sonia had been a few months of a year old then so she had very little care for shadowhunters and their customs. As far as she knew her aunt had never even killed a demon and she doubted that she would be going out to hunt for them any time soon.

Sonia on the other hand had always been a good fighter, whenever she visited she would teach Amelie everything she had learn about fighting techniques and they would practice together. Amelie had been a quick learner, though the runes on Sonia had always given the girl an edge Amelie was good at fighting. She knew that the girl had finally convinced her mother to let her go to an institute to train for a few months and she wondered if her cousin would hold it against her for making her return.

It wasn't as if Amelie had asked to be dragged to this life and she frowned as she quickly put on a shirt over her leggings and ran down the stairs barely remembering to bring the stele her aunt had given her the last time she had be conscious.

"Amelie Starkweather." She muttered under her face scrunching her face up in discomfort.


	4. Starkweather

**this is a short one, but I updated two chapters at once !**

Starkweather

When she woke up she could see the man with the runes tattooed all over his face. "B-brother Zachariah." She whispered as she leaned up on her pillow. "What happened?"

The silent brother looked at her as if he was trying to find something in her face.

 _You collapsed. Your father almost died during his ascension and somehow you were able to transfer your energy so that he survived it._

"That's not possible." She answered.

 _There are many things in the world that shouldn't be possible_. The man answered with no further explanation.

"How did I do it?"

 _There is something strange about you Amelie Starkweather._ The silent brother said and Amelie frowned.

"My name isn't Starkweather."

 _It has to be now. I'm sorry for all you have had to go through child, but you will have go by that name if you want to keep your family safe._

"Why can't I just live as a mundane? I was fine in Dinan." She answered defiantly.

 _Child, until you find out what you are and what you can do you can never be safe. There will always be demons coming to use you or destroy you. If the rest of the Shadowhunters find out about you and your brother they will never let you alone._

"How is this any different?"

 _The Silent Brothers will keep you safe while we find out what you are. You aren't the first anomaly in this world._

She didn't understand and she watched as the silent brother got up to leave the room.

 _Your training will begin tomorrow morning._ He said, _your aunt will train you and when you're ready she will send you to an institute so you can acquaint yourself with other shadowhunters._

Amelie glared at the hooded man as he walked to the door, her anger slowly seeping back into her mind. She didn't deserve this, her parents and her brother didn't deserve to be uprooted from their entire lives just because some hooded man with strange tattoos said it was safe.

She remembered her question about the runes and their colours before the silent brother had opened the door to leave her room and she suddenly blurted it out. "Wait!" The man turned tilting his head slightly with no emotion showing in his serene face.

"A-Are my runes supposed to be silver? I read all the books and they never say anything about the color of runes but mine are silver."

Runes are always black on flesh. He replied and left the room. Amelie felt her stomach fill with dread as she realized that her peculiarity was plainly visible on her skin.

She went back to sleep once the silent brother had left and when she woke up again it was morning. Her mother and father were now sitting beside her on a chair and she smiled as she looked up at them.

"Hi maman, papa."

"Do you remember what happened Ame?" Her mother asked and she shook her head.

"Papa was coughing, and suddenly I passed out?" She asked.

"Your runes glowed. Your tata wants to have you study about runes from the silent brothers once a week so you can begin to understand your um… abilities more." Her mother softly stroked her hair with a worried look on her face. "Its okay if you don't want to. Nobody is going to force you to do something you don't want to." Her mother added and Amelie had to hold back a sarcastic laugh. So far, all they had done was force her to do things she didn't want to.

"It's fine Maman, I'll be fine." She gave her mom a smile. "Brother Zachariah said we'd be training starting today?" She asked.

"Yes, your tata Monteclaire will be training you. Your cousin Sonia is here she arrived last night from the Paris institute, she'll be training with you." Amelie nodded getting out of bed as her parents left her to get ready for the day.

The last time she had seen her cousin Sonia was when she was telling Amelie about taking some clave tests to be allowed to go on missions to get demons. Sonia was her age, their birthdays were only one month apart with Amelie being the older one and they had always been pretty close. Despite the fact that Sonia had been a shadowhunter and Amelie a mundane. They had been raised as sisters since their aunt spent so much time at their house. Sonia's father had been killed during the uprising and since then Sonia's mother spent very little amount of time with other shadowhunters. She had only ascended a month before the uprising and Sonia had been a year old then so she had very little care for shadowhunters and their customs. As far as she knew her aunt had never even killed a demon and she doubted that she would be going out to hunt for them any time soon.

Sonia on the other hand had always been a good fighter, whenever she visited she would teach Amelie everything she had learn about fighting techniques and they would practice together. Amelie had been a quick learner, though the runes on Sonia had always given the girl an edge Amelie was good at fighting. She knew that the girl had finally convinced her mother to let her go to an institute to train for a few months and she wondered if her cousin would hold it against her for making her return.

It wasn't as if Amelie had asked to be dragged to this life and she frowned as she quickly put on a shirt over her leggings and ran down the stairs barely remembering to bring the stele her aunt had given her the last time she had be conscious.

"Amelie Starkweather." She muttered under her face scrunching her face up in discomfort.


	5. Sonia

**Two Chapters in one day ! I hope y'all like it and hit me with some reviews with critique in my writing but also in the storyline. I've been writing with large time intervals in the middle so sometimes I have inconsistencies. I'm going to go back and edit everything a little bit so its clearer.**

Sonia

Her cousin hadn't been annoyed at her for being the reason for her to have to come back home. In fact, the girl seemed glad to have Amelie there.

"I'm over zee Paris institute." She said with her thick French accent. When Amelie had offered to speak in French the girl had shook her head. "Non, its good for me to get zome eenglish practice 'ear." She had said and continued to speak in English, although Amelie had to ask her to repeat some of the things she said many times before she could understand.

"I like having one long Seraph blade," she said twirling her blade around her hand. "at zee institute zee kids were too much, zere was zee little lightwood girl, about Marion's age with 'er stupid whip."

"You can use a whip as a weapon too?" Amelie asked surprised.

"Yeah, you can use anything just slice them with a zeraph blade in the end zey disappear eizer way." She shrugged.

"Well, I like these short knives. Its easier to move with." She replied holding up her short identical knives on both hands as her cousin grinned.

"I'm still a better fighter." Sonia challenged and Amelie grinned holding out her knives and challenging her cousin to come at her.

They had gotten used to training together for the past couple of weeks and aside from the Tuesday mornings when Amelie had to have rune training all day with the silent brothers she spent all her time with Sonia.

Marion had been sent to train with all the other shadowhunter children and Sonia had finally explained to her what was so strange about Amelie. Silver runes weren't normal; in fact they were unheard of. Shadowhunter runes would fade into silver marks in their skin but actual silver runes were never seen. While the runes placed on Marion were black and in theory there was nothing different between him and the rest of the shadowhunters, if they saw the silver runes on her she would be easily discovered as something different.

Thankfully, there were very few permanent runes on her, aside from the one on her hand for looking past glamour and the other one on her right arm that the silent brothers had first marked her with everything else slowly disappeared.

"Its okay, I'll just cover up my arm when we go around." She reasoned with her cousin when the girl explained the problem to her.

Everything Amelie learned from the silent brothers she made sure to tell Sonia about. Her sessions with the brothers were supposed to be kept in confidence, technically she wasn't even allowed to discuss it with her parents but she had realized that she cared very little for the clave rules.

Other than training with Sonia and the weekly meetings with the silent brothers everything was like how it had been before she had been forced to move to Idris. One day after her training with Brother Zachariah she had come back to find Sonia in her room.

"Get changed, we're going out." She had a sly grin on her face when Amelie had inquired where they were going to.

"J'ai co- I convinced Maman de- to let us go down to eat zee zinner at a restaurant tonight for your birthday." The girl said struggling to get out a phrase completely in English.

"I honestly don't understand why you want to speak English so much. Just speak en Francais." She rolled her eyes putting on a shirt that completely covered her runes, even the fading iratze she'd placed on her collarbone this morning after Sonia had crushed into her.

"Vee really need to find a varlock to put 'elp you glamour those runes back to black."

Amelie nodded. "So where are we eating tonight?"

"Zee South Asian place in Alicante." She shrugged, "It is pretty popular and I made a reservation for five tonight."

"How are we getting there?" Amelie asked and her cousin gave her a grin.

"Don't vorry about it alright?"

An hour later they were all seated in the window area of the small South Asian restaurant. Her mother and father hadn't looked as surprised when they had seen the glass city for the first time and neither had her brother, but they had all probably been here before. Marion definitely had since he had to go to the class city to school with the other kids his age.

She hadn't been able to keep her amazement out of her face and Sonia had jumped around with excitement, pointing out everything to her as they walked around.

"I'm so excited to finally show you around." The girl had squealed. "Isn't zees zee best birthday gift ever?" She asked.

Amelie nodded, dumbstruck at how beautiful Alicante was.

"Okay at leest keep yourself vrom drooling Ame." Sophie had teased.

The restaurant they were at now was big, and she could see other shadowhunter families seated and eating around them.

"Sonia, why don't you tell us what to order?" She heard her father ask as her cousin peered at the menu.

"Well, Ame doez not eat meat so zat takes out every-zing good on zee menu." Amelie glared at Sonia grabbing the menu from the girl's hands.

"Sonia, there's and entire section that says vegetarian options!" She pointed at the menu and watched as her parents and Sonia laughed. "You're honestly the worst cousin."

"Order zee paneer," her cousin advised before burying her head back in the menu.

"Just order for all of us when the waiter comes." The girl just stuck her tongue out from above the menu.

Amelie looked around at the tables as she spotted a girl who was staring right at her with interest, and as their eyes made contact the girl winked. Amelie's jaw dropped and she watched as the girl grinned obviously amused. The girl was sitting across from a tall black haired woman whose hair was tied in a tight bun. The woman was looking at her as well now, a strange expression on her face. Amelie watched as the woman scanned everyone else in her table and slowly got up.

She was heading towards them now and Amelie wondered if she had been discovered. Barely half an hour in Alicante and a shadowhunter had already discovered them. She couldn't help the feeling of dread that washed over her for what seemed like the thousandth time that week.

"Nicole Monteclaire!" The woman cried as she reached the edge of the table and her aunt looked up surprised. "Why I haven't seen you in ages. How have you been?"

The woman had a kind voice, Amelie thought as the feeling of dread lessened. It wasn't gone however, she doubted she could ever stay calm in front of other shadowhunters after the ordeals she had had to go through in the past year.

"Jia, I 'ave been good." Her aunt's surprised look had left as soon as it had appeared and she was now standing up embracing the woman quickly. " 'ow are you? Zat must be your zaughter Aline."

The woman named Jia smiled looking at the rest of her family now.

"Oh, I vorgot to introduce you!" Her aunt said smoothly, "Zese are zee Stark-veathers, my zister Analise Stark-veather and 'er 'usband Matthew Stark-veather and zee children Marion and Amelie."

The woman's brows furrowed in confusion as she took in their names. "Do you live in Idris?" She asked. "I have certainly never seen you around."

This time it was her mother who spoke up. "We lived in France for while, we've recently moved here for the children to begin training."

Jia Penhallow seemed to be satisfied with her mother's reply as her face relaxed.

"Oh yes, ten years old is the perfect time to begin training if your young Amelie is the same age as Sonia," She said looking at Amelie. "My daughter Aline just got her stele not that she's allowed to be using it for another couple years!" The woman laughed and her comment confused Amelie.

Both Sonia and her already had a couple runes. Of course Sonia was only allowed the one rune on her arm but the girl had been marking herself for a while now. In fact, Amelie was only turning ten today and she already had two runes on herself and her seven year old brother already had one.

"Sonia and Amelie, you two should come practice with Aline from time to time. I know the Monteclaire home is so remote it would do you girls good."

This time it was her aunt that replied graciously, and she couldn't help but wonder how hard it would be for her to keep her marks hidden while training with another shadowhunter. Especially if she ever needed an iratze, Sonia was a rough fighter and usually they had to iratze themselves a couple times a day during training.

"Zat vould be quite vonderful Zia, Amelie and Sonia 'aven't really 'ad ze time to see ozzer Shadow-'unter children."

Jia gave her a smile and the woman returned to her table. Amelie couldn't help but sink slightly in her chair as she thought about her odd coloured runes.

As they ordered and ate dinner, she could see the girl Aline looking towards her every little while with curiosity. The Penhallows left before they had even gotten their food and by the time dinner was over she had almost completely forgotten about them.

Sonia had ordered some very spicy chicken and had gone through six cups of water and two trips to the restroom. Thankfully, Amelie's food was not even a little spicy and incredibly delicious so by the end of the night all she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep.

Of course, when they had paid their bill and had finally gotten home Sonia wouldn't let her go to sleep. Amelie had changed into her pajamas and was getting into bed when Sonia came in and made herself comfortable on the bottom of her bed.

"Okay so I vas thinking…" The girl started as Amelie glared at her stubbornly closing her eyes waiting for her cousin to give up and leave her alone. "Vat if vee vent to find a varlock tomorrow, who could glamour your runes black?"

"How would we find a warlock Sonia?" She groaned.

"I know vere Ragnor Fell lives, 'ee might 'elp us." The girl implored and Amelie just ignored her trying to will herself to sleep. "Zen vee vould ve able to train vith everyone else, and travel too."

"Sonia, we're ten years old. Actually no. I'm ten, you're still nine how in the world are we going to walk around Idris, find Ragnor Fell and convince him to help me do something I don't even think he knows how to do?" She asked.

Sonia sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Ve 'ave to try something." Amelie looked up from her place under her blanket and felt herself smile at her cousin's concern.

"You know I'll be fine right Sonia?" She asked. "Tomorrow after morning training lets go look at some books and see what we can find, if Ragnor Fell could have helped me I'm sure Tata Monteclaire would have already gotten him to."

Sonia nodded sliding off of Amelie's bed. "I'm not going to give up you know? Vee vill find something and vee vill 'elp you. If only zee clave vasn't so stupid."

Amelie grinned. "Go to sleep, you know your Maman will kill us if we're not fully awake for training."

The girl glared and walked out of Amelie's room finally leaving the girl to sleep.


	6. Glamour Runes

**woo ! new chapter. I actually have written a solid amount already so i'll be updating this quite often.**

Glamour Runes

Sonia had been true to her word about finding a way for Amelie to properly disguise her runes. Every day after training her cousin would drag her to the small library in the little shed outside their house and they would read all the books they could find about glamour and covering runes.

Her first idea was to find a marker and just colour them in black, to which Amelie had rolled her eyes at. Their training was advancing quite well, and her aunt had told her that she was getting really good.

In fact, by now she could easily wrestle Sonia without needing to stop and heal her bruises every few minutes.

After four weeks in the library, and bothering the silent brothers every time she had to study runes Amelie found a glamour rune that was usable. According to Brother Enoch, since Brother Zachariah had stopped tutoring her a few weeks back there was a rune from the book of white that only the brothers used. She had copied it down on her notebook while the silent brother hadn't been looking and had rushed to show it to her cousin.

"So Brother Enoch said it was too strong for normal shadowhunters?" Her cousin, whose English had gotten exponentially better in the past few weeks asked as Amelie brought out her stele.

"Yes, but I'm not a normal shadowhunter am I?" She grinned asking.

Sonia looked worried but traced the rune with her hand. "I've never heard of the book of white."

Amelie shrugged, "Me neither but Brother Enoch said it had been lost since the uprising."

"Yes, well a lot of things have been lost." Her cousin was looking strangely at the rune.

"Well, this is an option but we can keep looking for other things." She said closing her notebook as she took in the worried look on her cousin's face. The Silent Brothers were able to take on far stronger runes than normal shadowhunters and she wasn't about to just mark her skin with something that could kill her.

"No, we can do it." Sonia assured her, taking out her own stele from her back pocket. "Lets just draw it partially, and if it burns we don't need to finish it."

"We don't even know how it works." Amelie reasoned. "He just said glamour rune, not that it would make it look black or even invisible."

"Well, we won't know until we try!" The girl grinned, "C'mon Ame, it'll be fine half a rune won't do anything to you. If it burns we stop."

Amelie nodded biting her lips, "but you do it because I'm not even that good at copying runes."

Her cousin opened the notebook and went behind her. "I'll do your shoulder so it'll have the best effect."

Amelie waited for the cool sting of the stele, praying that it wouldn't hurt too much. She felt the cool tip touch her shoulders and she shivered as her cousin began the rune. To her relief the pain wasn't there at all, instead she felt a tingle on the surface of her skin and she could tell when her cousin had finished with the rune because she saw her marks slowly turn black.

"Sonia it worked." She exclaimed jumping out of her bed and looking at her marks.

"How did it turn black instead of simply disappearing?" Her cousin asked and Amelie shrugged.

"I don't know, but I really didn't think it would have any effect."

"Honestly, I thought we would have to stop halfway. Do you feel alright?" Her cousin asked and Amelie just laughed in relief.

"How are we gonna keep it from auntie?" She asked worried again, "they'll be furious that we tried a Silent Brother rune on me."

"We don't have to tell them yet. Next time you meet with Brother Enoch tell him it worked, the Silent Brothers won't care if you tried it and it worked."

"Won't they see that my runes are normal?" She asked, tracing the fading iratze with her fingers.

"Its night, and they won't see you until tomorrow morning. I'm sure the rune will fade by then."

Amelie nodded unsure. Her cousin stayed for a while, the sun had barely set and the only people in the house were her and Sonia. Their Aunt had left for the Paris institute that afternoon taking her parents with her and Marion had gone with them. They had made sure everyone was gone before trying the rune on her and she wondered if it really would fade before everyone came back.

"You know, I don't understand the point of you being given extra rune lessons if they don't expect you to use the runes." Sonia interrupted her thoughts.

"Maybe they expect me to use it, one day at least. I don't even think there's anything they're teaching me that could help me. I think its just an excuse for them to keep an eye on me." She replied. Her distrust for everything shadowhunter grew by the day and it didn't help that neither Sonia nor her mother were very big fans of the clave.

To them, the Clave was the reason Sonia's father was dead. He had died during the uprising when the Circle had attacked the clave and her mother had given up everything to be a part of the shadowhunters only for them to repay her with the death of her husband. She had no shadowhunter family on her husband's side left either. Celine Herondale, who had been her husband's sister had committed suicide after her husband and her brother's deaths and her mother and father in law had been dead for a long time. The Pontmercys were a distant relation and they lived in Paris, which was where Tata Monteclaire went much of the time but they were rude and had always looked down on her for having been a mundane.

Sonia had told her about how they had been abusive towards Celine and Sonia's father, however Sonia's father hadn't been raised with them having joined the shadowhunter academy as soon as he could. Sonia's mother had been close to Celine when the girl had come to live with Sonia's parents and they often trained together, that was where they had met Stephen Herondale and Sonia said her mother often told her she looked like Celine.

Sonia and Amelie's mothers looked almost identical, they both had pale blonde hair and green eyes but Amelie looked nothing like her cousin. Her father had dark skin and dark hair, which overpowered the blonde giving Amelie dark brown hair with dark eyes. Her eyes were grey like her father's, but unless she was under the bright sun they usually just looked black and only her skin tone was pale like her mother. Sonia on the other hand had golden hair and light brown eyes which usually looked gold under the sun.

"I overheard Maman last night," Sonia interrupted Amelie's thoughts, "I think she's thinking about sending us to an Institute soon to train."

"Us? Even me? With my silver marks." Amelie wondered.

"She's been talking to Jia Penhallow, who said the Lightwoods would be willing to let us train with them. They have a son that's as old as us and their daughter is like Marion's age."

"Really? Doesn't your Maman hate the Lightwoods?" Amelie knew all about the Lightwoods and how they had somehow sweet talked the clave into letting them get away with minimal punishment despite being one of the leading members of the circle.

"Yes well… you have a distant relative there apparently." She put air quotes around the word relative. "Hodge Starkweather, Jia contacted him and he said he would be interested in having us stay there for a while."

"Did your Maman agree to it?" Amelie asked disbelievingly. Tata Monteclaire openly disliked the Lightwoods, Amelie had heard her scoff about the New York institute many times with her other Shadowhunter relatives that visited.

"She seemed to, I think Jia was really persuasive. They were friends before you know?"

"Really?" Amelie hadn't gotten that impression when they'd met her at the restaurant, it had seemed like Tata Monteclaire hadn't bothered to keep contact with her.

"Yeah, Jia's mother was in the clave when Maman's ascension was approved." Amelie wondered how Sonia was so good at eavesdropping and always knowing everything. Most of the Shadowhunter history and gossip she knew was through her cousin who always seemed to have one ear open about all that was happening around her.

"I've never been to New York." Amelie grinned.

"And training with other shadowhunters our age would be so much better than staying here all day."

"Have you ever met the Lightwoods?" Amelie asked.

"No, Maman and I spend our time either here, in Paris or at your old house."

Her old house. It had been a year, more than a year now but it felt strange to think she would never get to live there ignorant of the shadow world.

"Do you know any other shadowhunters other than your cousins?"

"You mean other than the Verlac kid and the Pontmercys?"

"Yeah, I mean I can count the number of shadowhunter children I know in one hand." She said curiosity bubbling inside her now.

"Maman really doesn't associate with other shadowhunters." The girl shrugged. "Sebastian Verlac, Mallory Pontmercy, Lisette Pontmercy, Justine Pontmercy, Me, you, Marion." She grinned holding up seven fingers. "These are all the shadowhunter children I know."

"Marion and I don't even count!" she exclaimed disappointed. "You know as much as me then."

Her cousin laughed. "That's why I left the Paris institute, only Sebastian lives there and auntie Elodie is such a pain. She seriously spoils her nephew its so annoying."

Amelie grinned remembering Sebastian, who was their age. It was his stele that Marion had marked himself with, and she'd always wondered if Sebastian had left the stele in plain sight on purpose. While Sonia's cousins were never rude to them, and Amelie even enjoyed the times when they used to come over. However, she had begun to realize that to the Nephilim, mundanes were always something lesser and the mentality held true for the Verlac and Pontmercys too. No matter how close they ever got, mundanes were always less and Sonia didn't doubt that they wouldn't find it funny to see what would happen in mundane children tried out the stele.

"Hey, they can't keep us hidden from everyone forever you know?" Her cousin added optimistically. "We're shadowhunters and they'll have no choice but to let us out to train soon."

Amelie flinched when Sonia referred her as a shadowhunter again. Amelie didn't consider herself one, no matter how normal her marks had gotten because of the glamour. She didn't want to be a shadowhunter. She didn't like their rules, and she knew that a part of her cousin was glad that Amelie was here with her now because a year ago Amelie was something to be embarrassed about. She was the mundane cousin, no matter how close they had been or their mothers had been. It was hard not to be bitter about the idea, and Amelie looked at the excited face of her cousin who was flipping through the notes that Amelie had taken during her session with the silent brothers.

She wondered if the other shadowhunters were like her cousin as well. She had gone to mundane school when she lived in Dinan and mundane children didn't get as excited about their studies as her cousin seemed to. Maybe it helped that shadowhunter studies were more exciting, learning how to fight and about magical creatures seemed a lot more interesting than math and grammar.


	7. First Promise

First Promise

It wasn't until a year later that Sonia and Amelie were allowed to leave Idris. After Amelie spoke to the Silent Brothers about using her rune they determined that she would have to spend more time visiting the silent city for testing.

The brothers scanned her mind and tested the advanced runes on her for a week before they learned that while she was able to withstand more runes than the average shadowhunter her abilities also had a limit. Her parents had refused to allow the brothers to test her any more after one rune left a deep red scar on her palm and her training had ended.

Aside from her silver runes which she had found a way to glamour and the mystery of her being born able to withstand runes there was nothing different between her and any other young nephilim. The brothers had said they would check on her once every year but other than that she was to continue her training with everyone else.

It was September when her parents had decided they would be moving from Idris back to San Francisco where her father's family was. There was an institute there and they would move in an apartment nearby but otherwise go back to their mundane lives. Marion would be training at the San Francisco institute since he had just turned nine and received his stele and Sonia and Amelie were invited to stay at the Lightwood's New York institute for the fall.

"Are all shadowhunters somehow related?" Amelie muttered under her breath as she watched Sonia and Aline Penhallow laugh over the baby pictures of one of their cousins. They were sitting in the grassy area of the base of the Penhallow mansion.

"Oh you're just jealous." Aline teased laying back on the grass stretching her arms lazily. The afternoon sun was at its peak and the girls had been given a day off due to the clave's meeting.

"I am not!" Amelie crossed her arms and glared at the girl. "I'm just bored, it can't be that entertaining to look at pictures of baby Sebastian. He's not even here!"

"Actually," Sonia gave her a guilty look, "your Maman gave me your baby pictures while she was packing today." Sonia held up the album so Amelie could look at it.

Amelie lunged at her friend trying to snatch the photos back. "How could you?!" She exclaimed grabbing the thick book off of her cousin's hands.

"You know anything with my baby pictures definitely has yours as well." She flipped through the pages until she found a picture of a young golden haired girl with a red face, frozen in a wail.

"Wait until you hear about this Aline!" Amelie giggled showing the other girl the picture. The two girls were laughing at the picture while Sonia moved to grab it back.

"I can't believe you two are leaving me to go to New York. You'll be slaying actual demons." The girl complained and Sonia just rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, as if they're going to let two eleven year olds go demon hunting. At best, we'll be able to sneak out of the institute to see New York for real."

"Well I know Alec and Izzy, trust me you'll have fun there." The girl said confidently.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you're like related or something. This is ridiculous all shadowhunters are freakin-,"

"We're not related. They're just close family friends." Aline interrupted. "You'll have fun. Izzy is great and Alec can be a stick in the mud sometimes but trust me he'll be fun too."

"Well Maman and Papa are leaving through the portal tonight, and we're supposed to leave tomorrow afternoon." Amelie plucked two blades of grass from the ground and tied them together absentmindedly. "Its too bad you can't come with us."

In the past year they had been spending a good amount of time with Aline, not that the girls were close enough for Amelie to trust her with her secret but they did like Aline. She was a wonderful fighter and only Amelie was a match for her.

Amelie's skills with her short blades had grown exponentially, mostly because the runes she placed on herself seemed to last longer and were more powerful. Sonia even told her a few times that the runes she placed on her seemed to work better than the ones she placed by herself.

"I'll be fine. This is going to be your first time in an institute. Aren't you excited?"

Amelie was excited, Idris was beautiful but it had begun to get a little suffocating. Especially since she felt as if all she did all day was train or roam around town. There was no family to visit, and aside from Aline, nobody outside of her close family that they could hang out with.

"Do you think they'd actually let us fight demons?" Sonia asked Amelie later when they had gotten back from the Penhallow's place. Her parents had just left with her little brother and they had promised to come visit her in New York during the Christmas. The farewell had been tearful, especially her mother who had started crying when she'd hugged Sonia goodbye.

Tata Monteclaire had left to walk them to the Gard where the portal awaited and Sonia and Amelie were now packing.

"No, at least not without supervision."

"Well, we'll be leaving Idris for a while either way. I think Maman wants us to stay with you in San Francisco."

"She really doesn't like being a shadowhunter does she?" In the past two years that she had spent with her aunt, it was apparent that she really didn't enjoy the shadowhunter life.

"Non, I think she's planning on going back to work once she gets there. You know she worked as a journalist before she met papa?"

"Oui, Maman m'a dit."

"Uncle was a engineer non?" Sonia asked and Amelie grinned remembering.

"Oui mais papa worked as a consultant at home. Maman too, she was always on the phone."

"Will you stay a shadowhunter?" Sonia suddenly asked, her voice quiet. Amelie had never thought of the shadowhunter thing as anything permanent and in her mind she had always thought that she would go back to mundane school. Though these thoughts she had always kept within herself since she knew Sonia loved being a shadowhunter more than anything.

"I want to go back to school, after New York." She replied trying to be intentionally vague hoping Sonia wouldn't catch on.

She had no such luck however because Sonia rounded up on her asking "So you want to go back to being a mundane?"

"There's nothing less about being a mundane Sonia. I'm not even a real shadowhunter." She could hear the tension in Sonia's voice and felt frustration rise in her mind. She didn't want to fight the night before the left for the Lightwood's but at the same time she didn't understand why her cousin wanted her to love being a shadowhunter.

"You're good at it. By the Angel Ame, you're a better fighter than anyone I've fought with!"

"You haven't fought with many people besides me and Aline." Amelie reminded.

"Yes well Aline is supposed to be a very good fighter. And I know the only times she beats you is when you let her." Amelie glared annoyed that her cousin knew her so well.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Ame stop, you should be happy that you're so good! You are a real shadowhunter!"

"Just drop it Sonia." She slammed her suitcase shut glaring at her cousin who was starting to piss her off.

"Why should I? If you leave all this behind to be a mundane it would be a waste. We need more shadowhunters like you!"

"I didn't choose this Sonia, I didn't want to be a stupid shadowhunter. I wanted to live in my little town in France and go to school with my mundane friends." She growled.

"Nobody chooses to be one. You're born into it and you just have to suck it up and work for the greater good." The girl yelled back.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." Amelie sighed dejectedly. This wasn't the first time they had argued about Amelie's lack of excitement about being a shadowhunter.

Sonia's lips tightened and Amelie could tell that the girl was thinking whether she should push ahead to argue further or to give it up like Amelie had asked. The girl's shoulders relaxed and Amelie felt a sense of relief when she realized her cousin wasn't going to take the argument any further.

"Remind me to put the glamour on you tomorrow okay? If you put it on your back it will last the longest and nobody will see it either." Her cousin said before zipping up her own suitcase. "I'm done packing, I think I'll go to bed now."

Amelie nodded and watched as her cousin lugged the giant suitcase out of her room. Amelie had finished packing ages ago, since all she ever wore was her different black leggings and t-shirts. The only thing pretty in her closet was her set of silk pajamas that her aunt had bought her a couple years ago when she had moved in with her.

She sat down on her bed, flicking the light switch behind her and covering herself with her sheets. Tomorrow morning, she would be going to New York, and after that being a shadowhunter would be up to her, if she didn't want it she could leave.


	8. New York Institute

New York Institute

She had showered and Sonia had placed the glamour rune on her back that morning, and now the two girls were sitting in their living room with their luggage watching Tata Monteclaire greet the strange green warlock.

"Ragnor! Eet 'as been too long dear friend." The woman swooped in kissing his cheeks and the wizard gave her a hug.

"Ah Sonia, you've grown." The wizard nodded at her cousin and then his eyes rested on Amelie. "You've found a way to hide your runes. That's good."

Ragnor Fell looked the same he had looked like when she had first seen him two years ago. He was even wearing the same tweed jacket and baggy brown pants.

"Zee girls will be spending the next few months at zee New York Institute." Ragnor just nodded.

"You want me to ward them before they leave?" He asked stepping forward. Amelie frowned, she had just assumed the wizard would be helping them portal out not ward them. As if catching her confusion the warlock spoke up.

"I can't create a portal inside Idris without the clave's permission. You two will be taking the portal at the Gard." Amelie still didn't understand the point of being warded, they would be going to an Institute anyways.

"Zank you so much Ragnor. You know 'ow I feel about zee Lightwoods." Her aunt flurried.

The warlock nodded and she watched as he waved one lazy hand around her a couple of times, then shifted and did the same to Sonia. "That should keep them safe from any minor demon attacks. If anything happens, I've warned Magnus to watch out for these two especially the silver one." He nodded towards her.

"You are a vonderful vriend. Vould you like to stay for tea? Zee girls said zey vanted to head over to zee portal on their own." She looked worriedly over at Sonia and Amelie who had begun lifting their suitcases and heading towards the door.

"That would be lovely Nicole." Ragnor said as he made himself comfortable on the sofa.

"How does Tata know the warlock so well?" She asked as they made their way down to the tunnels that were supposed to lead them to Alicante.

"He was very nice to her, back when she had first come here. Maman said Valentine's wife introduced them!"

"What? No way, you mean _the_ Valentine?" Sonia nodded. "How did she know her? Wasn't he evil?"

"Yes but Maman said his wife was quite sweet. Actually, before the uprising Valentine was nice to Maman as well he used to give her medicine when she was pregnant with me."

"She drank it? What if it was poisonous or something?" Sonia laughed at Amelie's comment.

"Oh please, like he would dare poison us directly under the clave's nose."

"He was evil, you can never know." She answered logically.

"Yes well Papa never actually let Maman drink it, he was so ridiculously protective." Amelie grinned, Sonia had been just over a year when her father had died all she remembered about him were the things people around her told her about.

"Well that's good. Uncle Monteclaire sounds like a smart man."

"Well, Jocelyn," Sonia continued, "Valentine's wife, was close to Ragnor Fell and she helped Maman keep in contact with your Maman and Papa."

"Wow, how was she married to such a monster if she was so nice."

Sonia shrugged, "there are rumors that she turned against him in the end. Fat load of good she did though a lot of people died because she didn't have the guts to kill him in his sleep." There was a bitter tone to Sonia's words but she played it off with a laugh. "Hey look we're almost here!"

She walked into the large building warily, it was almost empty aside from large paintings of very solemn looking shadowhunters. They were probably supposed to give off a sense of pride to the other shadowhunters who visited the hall and to the visitors who would have to walk through there. To her however, they just looked incredibly creepy.

"Look, its Jonathan Shadowhunter." Sonia pointed at a painting of a large golden figure holding a sword on one hand and a cup on another, his body dripping with silver droplets as he rose out of a large body of water. There was a smaller figure knelt down in front of him and Amelie couldn't take her face off the golden figure.

He looked angry, and in a way kind of haughty. It reminded her of the way Aline looked when she talked about downworlders and mundanes.

"The angel looks seriously pissed off." Amelie commented.

"Yeah they don't tend to like being summoned."

"Have they been summoned much?" Amelie asked, the only account she had ever read of an Angel being summoned was that one time.

"No. Johnathan Shadowhunter is the only known occurrence."

"Yeah, well the angel looks like Johnathan Shadowhunter woke him up from a very nice nap." Amelie grumbled as they walked further into the halls.

"Please don't say anything like that when we're at the Lightwoods." Sophie begged and Amelie couldn't help but grin as they came to a stop in front of the tall hooded figure who had seemingly been waiting for them.

Amelie hadn't seen Brother Zachariah for a year, he had spoken to her a few times about her supplementary rune classes but after that it had always been another silent brother that would check up on her.

She was surprised to see that his hood lay slightly behind on his head and she could clearly see his runed face. She wondered if his face runes burned him and upon looking at him closely she wondered if his runes moved because the placement of them on his face seemed different.

Amelie Starkweater, Sonia Monteclaire. He stated, and his voice seemed strange in her head. She was used to the Silent Brothers being in her head, they always came to inspect her and Marion. What was different was that she had come to notice that every Silent Brother's voice was discernible in her mind and the voice of Brother Zachariah now didn't seem at all familiar.

The Portal in the Gard is a highly protected secret. Since your whereabouts are to be protected until we are able to determine your abilities properly you cannot have the entire clave knowing all about you. He explained as the girls followed him in through a short door at the edge of the hall. The air around it seemed to shimmer and when Amelie looked closer she realized that the door itself was covered in strange runes. Brother Zachariah didn't appear on the other side of the threshold and Amelie felt Sonia grab her hand as they walked through.

Amelie had forgotten how weird portals made her feel, walking through a door and suddenly appearing somewhere where the time, weather, temperature everything is different.

When they walked through the portal, they walked into a brightly lit room that blinded Amelie causing her to quickly shut her eyes and cover them with her palms, slipping out of Sonia's grip.

"Is she alright?" She heard a voice ask slightly judgmentally as she opened her eyes through her fingers.

"She's just not comfortable with portals." She heard Sonia snap back and she felt a rush of gratitude towards her cousin.

The first person she noticed was a boy, he was maybe slightly shorter than her and he had a frown on his face and he seemed to stare at her strangely. She felt her face heat up under his careful gaze and she realized that he had been the one that Sonia had snapped at.

"The light was bright that's all." She mumbled defensively but the boy's frown remained stubbornly on his face. He was standing next to a little girl who had her hair tied in what looked like an uncomfortably tight bun with one side slightly tousled and she wondered if the girl had been trying to get out of the impractical hair style. She couldn't have been any older than Marion, and for a nine-year old she couldn't imagine a ponytail that tight being comfortable.

This is Amelie Starkweather, she shuddered at the Silent Brother's voice and saw the little girl wince although the grumpy blue-eyed boy was looking at him curiously. And her cousin, Sonia Monteclaire.

"Thank you Brother Zachariah." Amelie hadn't noticed the older woman before, she was standing behind her daughter and was wearing dark clothes. Her hair was tied back neatly, and she looked like a larger version of her daughter.

The Silent Brother gave a nod and she watched him walk back through the portal behind her as the glowing doorframe vanished.

"Welcome to the New York Institute." The mother greeted them while Amelie was still looking at where the Silent Brother had vanished. "Alec and Izzy can show you to your rooms." The woman gestured as Amelie turned back around.

"Hi!" The little girl chirped eagerly walking forward to shake their hand. Her brother hung behind her still glowering.

"Um… Hi I'm Amelie." She replied nervously.

"I'm Izzy, and this is my brother Alec." She began introducing and leading them through the hallway. "Don't worry, he's not always this grumpy he's just nervous about meeting new shadowhunters." She explained and Amelie felt her cheeks burn slightly.

"How many people fit here?" She heard Sonia ask with a bit of awe on her voice.

"A lot, trust me we'll never be full." The girl, Izzy boasted

"The institute has hundreds of rooms." A quiet voice spoke up behind her and she realized it was the grumpy boy.

"It's bigger than the Paris institute." Sonia commented and Amelie looked around.

"We set up a couple of rooms near mine and Izzy's for you." Amelie saw that he was no longer frowning at them, he wasn't smiling like his sister either. His voice was passive and his face was guarded.

"Thank you." She gave him a smile and he quickly looked away. Amelie wondered what was wrong with him.

The girl led them up the stairs, explaining everything about institutes to them as if she knew about how far their family stayed from everything Shadowhunter related. She probably did though, since all shadowhunters seemed to know each other somehow and she was sure gossip about an odd family went around.

"Okay we're here, Amelie your room is right next to Alec's." She said slightly opening the door. "And Sonia's is across the hall." She said pointing at the large carved wooden door.

Amelie fiddled with the handle of her little suitcase which had been very annoying to carry up the stairs. At some point Alec had grabbed Sonia's second suitcase and he was edging towards her door as if eager to put it down as soon as possible.

"Mother and Father are going to the Los Angeles Institute tonight. So we'll have to order food for dinner." Izzy added, "unless you guys want to go go out to town for dinner."

Amelie raised her voice and she could see Sonia's face light up at the idea of going out to the city.

"Won't it be weird for a bunch of eleven year olds to be seen out alone?" She asked as she heard Alec let out a chortle behind her.

"We're shadowhunters. I think we can handle New York." Alec said almost superiorly, and Amelie felt herself frown. Shadowhunters really were all very full of themselves and she felt the urge to scoff and blurt out that she wasn't one.

"We'll come get you guys in a little bit." Isabelle said as she skipped over and opened Sonia's door for Alec to put her suitcase into.


	9. The City

The City

Amelie and Sonia were both sitting in Sonia's room that evening. Alec and Izzy had left them to unpack saying that they'd come get them in a couple of hours to go get dinner. It hadn't taken Amelie very long to fold her clothes inside the closet and she had immediately gone to Sonia's room afterwards.

"This is ridiculous; we're just going to eat." Amelie complained as her cousin tried on another outfit.

"Okay, but I want my first night in New York to be memorable."

"The orange shirt was cute, I said that the first time." She groaned laying back in the bed.

"Yeah but then you said what if we got cold!"

"It's May and it's like fourty degrees outside, it won't get cold."

"I checked my laptop actually, its 36." Sonia shrugged putting on another shirt over the light shredded jeans she had on.

"I can't believe you're wearing those pants, they've got more holes than actual denim on them."

"You're one to talk, how many of those black leggings do you own?" The blonde retorted glaring through her reflection.

"These are grey. And the orange shirt goes best with those holes than anything else." She replied not bothering to open her eyes and look at her cousin's outfit. She knew the girl's closet by heart after being forced to watch her try all possible combinations countless times.

"You know for someone that wears essentially the same outfit everyday, you give remarkable advice." Her cousin sounded pleased as she heard her ruffle through her clothes for what was probably her orange shirt.

"When are they gonna come get us? I'm starving." Amelie grumbled.

"I dunno, I hope they come soon though because I told maman I would call her before ten."

"It's only five, we'll definitely be back in five hours."

"I wish they'd given us a time. I'm hungry we forgot to eat lunch before we left." Sonia whined and Amelie could feel her stomach grumble. She couldn't help but wonder if the Lightwoods had forgotten about them. It was likely, Aline said the New York institute was always practically empty aside from the Lightwood family. According to her, it wouldn't have been a punishment if the Lightwoods had been sent to stay in an institute that was full of shadowhunters and shadowhunter families living all around; this way they were completely exiled.

Amelie plucked on her leggings with boredom as she sat on the bed while Sonia finished hanging up the rest of her clothes. She had offered to help, but her cousin hadn't let her. Insisting that Amelie had had to help her pack her clothes as well. She had been to tired to argue with Sonia and she kept looking towards the door, wondering if she would get lost if she went out wandering around the institute.

It had been a long time since she had been in Idris, while New York might be the Lightwood's prison for her she was finally free. Idris was her prison and after spending a few months in the institute she would be free to choose her life instead of having the Silent Brothers decide her fate.

"Why're you smiling?" Her cousin's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "You're thinking about being able to leave again aren't you?" The hurt and fear were clear in the other girl's eyes for the second time that day and Amelie felt guilty.

No matter what Amelie said she would never understand why Amelie felt so trapped as a Shadowhunter. Sonia was born one, she had been raised to think amazing things about her heritage but Amelie hadn't. She had been dragged out of her happy life, her parent's had been forced to uproot their entire lives because of the clave and whatever might have caused her and her brother to be born that way.

"I'm not fighting about this again." She answered unable to look her in the eyes.

Sonia was silent. They both sat awkwardly in silence, and Amelie could almost hear the gears turning in her cousin's brain as she was probably thinking of ways to convince Amelie.

There was a loud knock on the door, after what felt to Amelie like an eternity later.

"Sonia? Amelie?" She could hear a girl's voice coming from outside the door and Amelie got up to open it. "Are you two ready?" The girl asked peering past Amelie to Sonia who was now standing beside the bed.

"Yeah, do we go now?" Amelie asked, she was relieved that she had been able to push the argument Sonia had probably been about to start for a later time.

"Mhm, Alec is waiting downstairs."

The trip to the restaurant was not a very long one, Alec had a cab waiting for them on the street outside the Institute and he gave the cab driver a few instructions before they sped through the city. Amelie's eyes had been glued to the window the whole time as she tried to memorize the view.

Growing up she hadn't been a big fan of big cities and crowded spaces but having been trapped in Idris for so long she was glad to see the mundane world again.

"This is Taki's, the best food in New York City." She heard Alec boast from ahead of them as the four kids walked in. Amelie had been expecting a normal mundane food place with families eating lunch together. Part of her was disappointed when she saw that it was obviously not a part of the mundane world. For one thing, the windows were tinted to keep UV rays in so there was a orange ambiance to the whole place. At a first glance the people in there could pass off as normal teenagers but once Amelie's eyes focused she could see a green horned man sitting on a corner across from a white haired woman with light blue skin. The waitress behind the counter looked like a normal blonde girl until she turned to show her sharp pointed ears talking to a sullen looking boy who was drinking what looked like tomato juice.

"What is this place?" She asked in wonder as she looked around and she saw a few dirty looks being sent in their direction as she followed Alec and Izzy into a booth.

"I told you, best food in New York." The boy picked up his menu and flipped through as if he knew exactly what he was looking for.

Amelie looked around more at the colourful people around her. The disappointment at not finally being able to be in a mundane place faded as she stared at the strange people around her.

Some were glaring at their booth through their menus, and she could see a booth full of who she assumed were vampires because of their identical blood red smoothies sending nervous glances in their direction. She watched as Alec casually pulled out his stele and glowered at the tables around them threateningly, immediately the glares disappeared. She frowned, surprised to see a room full of people afraid of an eleven-year-old boy with a stele. This was why she didn't want to be a part of the Shadowhunter world, she thought to herself. The sense of power they all felt over the downworlders and the mundanes as if they were superior beings.

If they saw her marks, what would be the difference between her and the downworlders? She wondered. She could hold marks, but so what? That was the same as a warlock being green, the subtle difference that showed the world that there was something wrong with them.

"There are some strange things on this menu." She heard Sonia remark as the girl flipped through.

"You know, I've always wanted to try the fae food." Izzy said, "I've heard it does funny stuff to humans."

"Yeah, and it might kill us too." Alec said sourly. "Can we just order, the human food is in the back."

Amelie wondered what was wrong with him; he was always so annoyingly grumpy.

"Get the choco shake." Izzy suggested. "With a burger and fries." Amelie nodded waiting for their waiter to arrive.

Alec however, didn't seem keen on waiting and she watched, frowning as he pushed his chair back and headed to the counter.

"You're all getting the same thing?" He glowered at them but his little sister didn't seem to be fazed. She just smiled sweetly and nodded towards him.

A sudden rush of annoyance washed over Amelie, "I would like the Java Shake and a garden sandwich with curly fries." She blurted, feeling her face slightly redden in both embarrassment and anger.

Alec just shrugged and turned back around apparently giving the blonde fae their order.

Amelie felt Sonia nudge her under the table and she frowned at her cousins direction, refusing to make eye contact. Instead she focused on Alec as he came back and sat down on the booth.

"The java shake is better than the choco shake." He said unexpectedly over the silent table. His face still held the grumpiness but at least he wasn't glaring at her this time.

Alec had been right about the java shake being better, she had tried Sonia's Chocolate shake. This was something only she and Alec seemed to agree on however because her cousin had made a face the second she'd tried Amelie's drink. She'd even made fun of her sandwich which was full of vegetables.

"I don't get how you have the energy to fight if you never eat meat." The girl had grumbled and spit out the piece of Amelie's sandwich that she had tried. Of course, Isabelle had gone after Sonia to try a bit of Amelie's sandwich and had made a face. At least she had the decency to keep from spitting it out.

"Can I try it?" Alec asked kind of shyly after Sonia had stopped rambling about how disgusting she found sprouts.

Amelie raised her eyebrows in surprise but handed half her sandwich to the boy. "I hope you're not a germaphobe I already took a bite off this piece."

The boy just took the sandwich from her hand and bit into it. Amelie looked for his face to scrunch up in disgust like his sister and Sonia's had but the look never appeared.

"Wow its really good." The boy said with his mouth full, sending her a big grin as he swallowed. "Can I have another bite?" He asked looking almost sheepish and Amelie felt her face redden.

"Of course you would like it." Isabelle snorted taking a bite off her own burger.

"I'm ordering this next time." He said as he handed the sandwich back to her. "I love avocados."

Amelie took the sandwich back wishing her face would stop burning. She could see Sonia looking at her with a strange expression in her eyes and it only made her face burn hotter.

"You wanna try this? Or do you seriously not eat meat?" He asked holding out his sandwich, the grumpy look was off his face and he looked a lot better like this.

"N-no." She stuttered out, "I've just never had meat."

"Wanna try?" The smile was back on his face and Amelie took the burger from him, slowly taking a bite.

She had chicken once when she was little and had gotten sick, that was the only time she remembered eating meat. This was beef, and as she took a bite she felt a strange salty and grainy texture in her mouth. There was a weird bitter taste to it and she had a hard time chewing it down, while trying to keep her face expressionless.

"Do you like it?" Sonia was asking and Amelie handed the sandwich back to Alec still struggling to chew it all down.

When she had finally swallowed it all down she took a long sip of her java shake. "It's really really hard to chew."

Alec let out a laugh still holding on to his burger. "Its fine if you don't like it Amelie."

She smiled uncertainly at him. "It's just really hard to chew." She could still feel the texture in her mouth and the taste stayed in her mouth.

He gave her a reassuring smile and went back to eating his food. Sonia nudged her with her foot and gave her a sly grin and Amelie looked at the boy confused by his strange change in demeanor.

"I can't believe you convinced her to eat meat, I've been trying to do this for the past twelve years." Sonia went on and Amelie wished she could sink into the ground.

"I don't think she really liked it that much." Alec was still smiling, his teeth showing and Amelie stomped on Sonia's foot annoyed with her cousin's antics.

"You're annoying." She mumbled putting the straw of her milkshake in her mouth, her eyes falling to the rune on the back of her hand which was starting to shimmer.

The last time she had applied her glamour was that morning, so she was surprised that it was beginning to fade already. Nobody else had noticed but she knew from experience that she had maybe twenty minutes before they would become noticeable.

"Hey, do you know where the bathroom is?" She asked leaning towards Izzy.

"Alec's burger didn't agree with you?" The girl teased pointing towards the corner of the room.

"Yeah, I think so." She lied scooting out of the booth as Izzy pointed towards the corner of the diner.

"It's just back there."

Amelie nodded and speed walked towards the bathroom, her right hand fiddling with the small pocket in her leggings' waistband that held her stele.

She didn't turn into the bathroom, instead once she was out of the Lightwood's sight she pushed through the back exit door her stele gripped tightly on her right hand. She had barely had the time to press her stele down on her arm to draw her glamour when she saw the frightening scene in the alleyway.

The first thing she saw was a giant, she didn't know what to call it. It was big, and scaly, and there seemed to be some type of dark green substance dripping from its body. She stood frozen as the diner's back door shut loudly behind her, the giant creature however, didn't seem to have heard because it was facing the other way.

Its okay. It's just a demon Ame. She thought to herself as she struggled to let in a breath. Just take deep breaths. You're trained to fight demons. There are seraph blades in your boots. She tried to reassure herself as she slowly breathed in and out, replacing her stele with the two long knives she had somehow pulled out of her ankle high boots despite trembling in fear.

Her runes were completely silver now, but Amelie was beyond noticing her runes. Her heart seemed to be ready to beat out of her chest as she readied herself to lunge at the large beast the way her training had taught her to.

However, before she could ready herself to even take a step, there was a loud bang and her entire body was covered in oily dark green ooze. It was everywhere, she could feel it filling up the space in her nostrils and she wiped it quickly off her face and looked around to find that the ooze was in fact remnants of the large demon she had been readying herself to fight.

"Useless shadowhunter." She heard and she had to focus her eyes before she realized that a tall figure stood directly before her. "You couldn't have appeared two minutes earlier when the goddamn beast was tearing at my favourite shirt."

She watched as the figure, a man that for some reason looked extremely familiar, scrunched his face up in a pout and scrubbed on the clean white shirt he had on. She rubbed her eyes again to get rid of the excess ichor and squinted at the strange man.

"I-s-sorry?" She apologized as the man finally looked up from his shirt, annoyance clear on his face.

"I swear, shadowhunters, even your young a-," whatever he had been about to say, he didn't finish as he made eye contact with her. "Oh. Not a shadowhunter, huh." He tilted his head and looked at her curiously.

"Not a shadowhunter?" She asked, wondering what he meant. Of course, her marks, she hadn't had the time to cover them up yet.

"Oh, do you consider yourself one shadowhunter now. I seem to recall you didn't two years ago." He shrugged, going back to waving his finger at his clothes throwing blue sparks over every little piece of ichor staining his clothing.

"I-I don't know wha-," she began, and she realized who the man was. "Magnus Bane!" She exclaimed, suddenly remembering him as the disappointingly mundane looking warlock that had made the portal for them to go to Idris.

He seemed to smile as Amelie's mind spun. "I'm not a shadowhunter, I do what I need to survive." She answered truthfully and the warlock looked up at her.

"Good. You've learned what all downworlders have had to learn." His voice was solemn but the smile stayed on his face.

"I'm not a downworlder either." She said, her voice was quiet however, and she knew she didn't believe what she was saying. It wasn't as if she were a mundane, and downworlders were all the things that weren't shadowhunters or mundanes.

Magnus Bane seemed to realize the conflict in her eyes as she spoke the words because his eyes had softened to show almost pity.

"You are a lot like a warlock darling. Those silver runes are your mark." She looked down at the patterns around her arms realizing the warlock was right. "The Silent Brothers won't find out what is different about you. They won't look where they're supposed to."

"I'm not the offspring of a demon, I know my parents." She was confused.

"I know a warlock mark when I see one. The runes on you are not just from the Angel, there is something foreign about it."

"Well obviously," She was starting to get annoyed. "But why would you be more reliable than the silent brothers?"

The warlock just smiled cynically at her remark. "Downworlders are more open than shadowhunters. The oppressed are always more likely to help than those that think they are superior."

"The Silent Brothers already are helping me." She didn't get the reason behind the warlock's sudden interest in her. Or why he kept making such vague remarks but she didn't leave as he continued to stare at the runes intrusively.

"How did you learn to hide them?" He asked.

"How do you know I hide them?"

"I can still see remnants of the glamour, but its different from the glamour usually seen on shadowhunters."

"It's a rune." She shrugged, not entirely truthfully.

"Yes, well its not a common shadowhunter rune now is it?" He pressed on.

She didn't reply, her lips pressed closed as she wondered if she should tell him the truth.

"If you ever feel like you need a downworlder's help, you can get it from me little one." He looked at her, breaking the silence by handing her a little black card.

"You just want me to email you if I need help?" She asked looking at the writing on the paper, surprised that it was something as simple as an email and a phone number. She had expected maybe some weird instruction to a warlock-calling ritual instead of something so mundane.

"Email, phone, text, fax. Whatever floats your boat." He waved his hands and when she looked up from the card he had already left. She was alone, staring at a little black card. Her entire body covered in dark green demon ichor.


	10. Friendship

**Hey! I'm glad so many people have read this piece allll the way to this chapter. Please let me know what you think in the reviews !**

Friendship

"You killed a demon?" Alec repeated for possibly the fifteenth time in that past hour. She had gone back into the restaurant after her encounter with Magnus Bane, barely remembering to put the glamour rune around her wrist.

"No. I didn't kill it." She answered. "I had help."

"B-but you killed it."

"No. The warlock did."

"He's a downworlder." The boy waved inattentively. "But you killed a demon and only at the age of eleven. Mom is never letting you leave." He was looking at her in complete awe and Amelie looked away uncomfortable with the praise.

"I really did nothing." She mumbled quietly under her breath.

Their food had arrived and she looked at Sonia for help. The boy who had been quiet and aloof ever since they had met had completely changed his demeanor in the past fifteen minutes.

After the incident with the demon behind the restaurant, Amelie had walked back in with ichor dripping down her right arm. Isabelle had started blasting her with questions as she had begun wiping the ichor off her arms with the bubblegum pink napkins.

She had laid some napkins down on the seat and sat down, peeling off her cardigan and tossing it in the trash all the while ignoring Alec and Isabelle's questions on what had happened.

"Look, can we just eat? I don't want to talk about it anymore." She glared at the two Lightwoods who had started to get on her nerves.

"Fine, but we'll have to write a report about it once we get home."

"A report?"

"They have to write a report of every possible demonic activity." Sonia explained before either of the siblings could open their mouths to explain.

"Write a report? What is it… like an essay?" She rolled her eyes, first she was attacked by a demon, then covered in disgusting demon ooze, and now to top it all off she had to write an essay. Her first day in New York was not turning out to be the way she had hoped when they had finally released her from Idris.

"No, it not that bad. You just fill out a form and kind of describe what you saw. Its your first time so Hodge will probably just do it after asking you a few questions." Isabelle waved off her worry. "But tell us, what was it like?"

"Hey, can we just eat and stop bothering Amelie with all of this." Sonia said abruptly dropping her utensils on her plate with a loud clank. She had opted to eat her burger with a knife and fork, something even Amelie thought was incredibly strange but the girl had pointed out that it made a less of a mess.

The Lightwoods kid shut up immediately, Alec throwing a glare at Sonia and Isabelle just shrugging and going back to the milkshake in front of her.

"We are allowed to still talk right?" Isabelle asked snarkily and Sonia just rolled her eyes.

"Only if you're not being annoying." Amelie gave her cousin a grateful smile, her hands drifting to the pocket in her jacket that held the card the warlock had given her. She wouldn't really have minded all the questions; Amelie usually was pretty social. The only problem was that she didn't want to have to lie to them if they strayed to the topic of why she was out there in the first place. Or the conversation she had had with the warlock in the alleyway. Could the silver runes be a warlock mark? But how could her body withstand marks if she was supposed to be a downworlder. Demon blood and Angel blood couldn't exist on the same body; she had been taught that much at least.

They ate the rest of their food in silence, the Lightwood kids looking at them awkwardly from time to time, especially at Amelie. Even after they had paid for their food and had started to head back to the institute. The Lightwoods had said it would be nearly impossible to get a cab at this hour, and there would be no point because 7PM traffic would take three times longer for them to get home than if they just walked.

"Okay, just ask your questions. Even your silence is getting annoying." Amelie groaned out as they waited at a red light.

"Sorry…" Alec mumbled but Isabelle grinned widely rambling off a series of questions.

"What did it look like? Was it like really big? I've never seen one before and they come in all shapes and sizes. They can look like people or even look like big gooey monsters its like completely random!"

"It was a big kinda scaly one." She replied. "I don't know, I really didn't do much but stand there as the warlock killed it."

"But you came back with so much ichor all over you!"

"Yeah, well he killed it and all the goo fell on me. I really didn't do anything." She insisted for the fifth time that day.

"You're just being humble."

"Oh my god!" Sonia exploded next to her. "She's literally said this a hundred times, she's not being humble honestly you two are so annoying."

"You don't have to be rude." Alec mumbled, "I believe you. If you say you didn't do it then you didn't." Amelie looked at him grateful but also incredibly confused. Just a few minutes ago at the diner he had been so insistent that the warlock couldn't have killed it but now he was saying he believed her.

"You're very inconsistent Alec." She pointed out.

"Why?" The boy asked, looking genuinely confused by her remark.

"You just told me that there was no way a warlock killed the demon, and now you believe me?"

"I realized I was wrong." He replied simply, and Amelie just looked at him surprised by the honesty in his reply.

"Well good, because you were wrong." She said as they climbed up the stairs to the institute. "Why did we take a cab before? We didn't walk that far."

"We wanted to show you what a New York cab was like." Isabelle piped out.

"I didn't think you guys really cared that we were visiting." The words came out of Amelie's mouth before she could stop herself and she looked at the two kids embarrassed by her rudeness.

"We don't really get to see too many other kids." Alec admitted. "We were actually kind of excited when we heard you were visiting."

Amelie was surprised to hear that, given the reaction Alec had had when he had first met her. She opened her mouth to point it out, but slammed it shut as a thought came into her head. Izzy had always seemed excited to see them; it had just been Alec that had been rude in the beginning. Maybe it was just difficult for him to warm up to people, she knew about the Lightwood kids. Their parents had been exiled from Idris and they didn't get to see many shadowhunters much less shadowhunters their own age.

Sonia however, didn't seemed to have come to the same realization as Ame had as she quickly began to respond to Alec's comment.

"Well if that was so then why-"

Ame elbowed her hard, "I'm quite exhausted from everything today, would it be alright if I went to bed early?" She interrupted as Sonia shot her an annoyed look.

"Uh… okay you don't need to ask permission to sleep." Alec responded seeming confused. "I can do the report of the demon for you too, I'm not tired."

Amelie had forgotten completely about the report on her way back and she suddenly felt guilty. "Oh no, it's fine! Just let me know how I can fill it out and I'll do it." She amended.

"It doesn't take that long really." Alec seemed to insist.

"I can do it." She didn't want to be a burden, especially now that she was beginning to feel a little more comfortable around him.

"Oh Raziel, why don't you just teach her how to do it Alec?" Sophie sighed sounding exasperated by their conversation.

"Yeah, you don't know how it looked or anything, you'll need my help." Amelie insisted and Alec led her down the hall defeated.

It took them a little over an hour to fill out the report. Of course, it would probably have taken half that amount of time if Amelie had just let Alec fill it out but she had insisted on learning how to do it herself.

While he was still quiet and a little broody she was beginning to realize that it just took him a while to open up. She could relate to that, especially since other than Sonia and occasionally Aline she probably came off cool and aloof to all the other Shadowhunters she had met. He had been very patient while teaching her how the reports worked and how they got processed.

"Have you ever had to fill out one of these?" She asked as they got to the third stack of papers.

"Mom and Dad usually sit me down and fill them out with me. The ones we fill out for a normal patrol are less annoying since they are just a formality. I usually fill them out, but Izzy and I are not allowed to go on patrol yet so."

"When are you allowed to start patrolling?"

"Fourteen maybe? It really depends on our parents."

"Is that what most shadowhunters do?" She didn't think she would actually want to fight the demon that she had seen today. Magnus was a grown up wizard, she couldn't imagine what it would have done to her if she had been there alone.

"I don't know. We don't really get to meet many shadowhunters."

"You've met Aline though right?" Alec nodded.

"Jia Penhallow is a close friend of our parents, and we see her only when we have to be in Idris for some big thing."

"I haven't met that many either. I've met some of my aunt's relatives, the Monteclaires and the Verlacs." She signed the last paper that Alec had handed her, closing the demon book that had a rough drawing of what looked like the demon she was reporting.

"Ah we're finally done!" Alec said stacking up the papers and stretching out his arms. "I hate doing reports!"

"I don't understand why you need so many different papers for one demon."

"Mmm… what time is it?" He asked, getting up from the seat he was in and looking to the giant grandfather clock on the other side of the library. "Oh wow its already nine. I wonder where Hodge is."

"Hodge Starkweather?" She asked, she was actually pretty glad they hadn't seen him yet. He was not someone she was looking forward to have to lie to. Of course, they had already rehearsed the lie many times. Her father was a Starkweather, his parents had lived in the country side of Idris and when he was young he had gone to the San Francisco institute to train. The lie worked because everyone that had been in that institute had died in during the time of the Circle. Her mother was a mundane that had ascended, and her parents didn't really like to talk much about it. That was her rehearsed lie, and she repeated it in her mind again as Alec continued talking to her about what it was like to live in the institute.

"Are your parents away often?" She asked trying to deflect the conversation from coming towards her.

"They leave for important meetings, usually they're here though. We aren't in Idris often."

"Ahh… do they let you go demon hunting?"

Alec gave her a strange look and Amelie felt heat rising to her face afraid that she had exposed herself somehow.

"No, we're not old enough yet. Izzy isn't even allowed to train technically."

"Technically?"

"Well, mom said Izzy could start training this year, even though usually young shadowhunters start training at ten." He explained.

"I've been training for over two years already." Amelie told him. "And I just turned eleven. I think Sonia started even earlier."

"That's probably why you were able to kill that demon." His comment irritated her and she raised her head to tell him off but he was grinning sheepishly at her.

"Yeah, yeah I know, it was the warlock." He gestured, waving his hand and rolling his eyes.

"Well it was. I knew him too." She said and immediately shut her mouth hoping he wouldn't catch what she had said.

"Knew him? How did you know a warlock?" It didn't work.

"Uh… He opened a portal for us once when I was going back to Idris from France." She said, the response was close enough to the truth that she doubted he would inquire more.

She was wrong. "Oh you've been to France? How is it?" He asked.

"Its nice." She responded realizing she would probably have to find a way to end her conversation with Alec before she accidentally spilled more about herself. "You know, I'm feeling a little tired."

"Oh, okay." The boy looked noticeably disappointed. "I can walk you up if you want."

 **Hey y'all! It would be amazing if you could hit that little review button on the bottom and let me know what you think of this piece so far. I'm quite excited about exploring this whole downworlder-or not thing.**

 **Next chapter, I think will be going a lot more into that I can't wait to put it up!**


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